Pope prefers Communion on the tongue

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VATICAN CITY - A papal aide says Pope Benedict XVI intends to return to the old way of distributing Communion at Masses.

chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-vatican-pope-communion,0,2231071.story

Benedict’s master of liturgical ceremonies said in an interview Wednesday in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that the pontiff will place the Communion host in the mouths of the faithful who kneel before him.
That’s how Roman Catholics received Communion in the years before the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The reforms made it possible for faithful to take the host in their hands while standing.

Benedict gave Communion to kneeling faithful during his trip this month to southern Italy.

The aide, Monsignor Guido Marini, says that distributing Communion the old way helps faithful be devout.
 
Walking_Home said:
VATICAN CITY - A papal aide says Pope Benedict XVI intends to return to the old way of distributing Communion at Masses.

chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-vatican-pope-communion,0,2231071.story

Benedict’s master of liturgical ceremonies said in an interview Wednesday in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that the pontiff will place the Communion host in the mouths of the faithful who kneel before him.
That’s how Roman Catholics received Communion in the years before the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The reforms made it possible for faithful to take the host in their hands while standing.

Benedict gave Communion to kneeling faithful during his trip this month to southern Italy.

The aide, Monsignor Guido Marini, says that distributing Communion the old way helps faithful be devout.
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Actually, it should read “the pontiff will place the Communion host in the mouths of the faithful who kneel before JESUS”.
🙂
sneakers
 
I had only heard of the US having the dispensation for Communion in the Hand… How many other Dioceses/Countries have such a dispensation?
 
Every country that I have been to in Europe…and I have been to at least 8, I have received communion in the hand.
 
CatholicCid said:
I had only heard of the US having the dispensation for Communion in the Hand… How many other Dioceses/Countries have such a dispensation?
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I cant speak for all dioceses in Japan but in Tokyo in the hand is the most common way. Needless to say me with my open mouth has surprised more than a few extraordinary ministers. I receive that way to be more reverent but sometimes the look on their face and an audible “oh” has me suppressing smiles all the way back to my seat.
 
vee8 said:
I cant speak for all dioceses in Japan but in Tokyo in the hand is the most common way. Needless to say me with my open mouth has surprised more than a few extraordinary ministers. I receive that way to be more reverent but sometimes the look on their face and an audible “oh” has me suppressing smiles all the way back to my seat.
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I have been on both sides. Doing this is a bit difficult when both are standing, kneeling at the altar rail would be better. Those who wish to receive in their hand could just stand at the altar rail.
 
In interview published in the Wednesday edition of L’Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict’s new Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, Monsignor Guido Marini, says he believes that people receiving Communion kneeling and on the tongue will become common practice at the Vatican.

Msgr. Marini’s comments were made during an interview with Gianluca Biccini on some of Pope Benedict XVI’s recent liturgical decisions and their meaning.

Biccini noted in the exchange that Pope Benedict distributed Holy Communion to people who knelt and received the host on their tongues during his visit to Brindisi (Southern Italy) last week.

When he was asked if this would become a common practice at the Vatican, Marini responded, “I believe so.”
"In this regard it is necessary not to forget the fact that the distribution of Communion on the hand remains, up to now, from the juridical standpoint, an exception (indult) to the universal law, conceded by the Holy See to those bishops’ conferences who requested it,” the liturgical master of ceremonies reminded.
Canada, Mexico, the Philippines and the United States are all countries that have been granted an exception from the universal practice of receiving Communion on the tongue.

It seems though that the Pope wants to provide an example for the Church, according to Msgr. Marini, “The form adopted by Benedict XVI is meant to highlight the force of this valid norm for the whole Church."

“It could also be noted that the (Pope’s) preference for such form of distribution which, without taking anything away from the other one, better highlights the truth of the real presence in the Eucharist, helps the devotion of the faithful, and introduces more easily to the sense of mystery. Aspects which, in our times, pastorally speaking, it is urgent to highlight and recover.”
 
vee8 said:
I cant speak for all dioceses in Japan but in Tokyo in the hand is the most common way. Needless to say me with my open mouth has surprised more than a few extraordinary ministers. I receive that way to be more reverent but sometimes the look on their face and an audible “oh” has me suppressing smiles all the way back to my seat.
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In the hand is the most common way in the Diocese of Takamatsu which overs the whole of Shikoku. I’ve also attended Mass in Okayama, Osaka, Nagoya, Hiroshima and Fukuoka and there too it was in the hand.
Gearoidin
 
I have never recieved on the tongue before. 😊 Because I don’t want to drop the Eucharist, or move back at the wrong time and have the priest drop the Eucharist. 😊 😊 😊
 
Is that biblical?

Certainly more Biblical than sitting on your haunches passing a plate of crackers and grape juice around as happened when I was a Baptist.
 
Hang on - the Pope rightly offering communion to those kneeling and on the tongue to make the point that people can and should receive in such postures doesn’t mean necessarily that he prefers it. Msgr Marini’s assertion that he does prefer it means not a thing.

Going further - even if he DOES prefer it it is just that, a preference. As the GIRM states in most all countries, choice of posture is up to the preference of the communicant, unless due to blatant abuse a bishop decides to remove the option offered by the indult in his diocese.

And there ain’t a single solitary Bishop anywhere that I’m aware of in the last 40 years who has done so. Not even the last two Popes - who on the contrary have, whatever their personal preference, permitted extension of the indult to places where it hadn’t previously been such as Poland and Rome itself. 🤷
 
Walking_Home said:
That’s how Roman Catholics received Communion in the years before the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The reforms made it possible for faithful to take the host in their hands while standing.
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Not entirely accurate. The Second Vatican Council did not reform the liturgy, the Consilium did; the Council just voted on the guidelines and principles of that reform (which were not all followed by the Consilium and the Pope, and which were exceeded a great deal).

Standing was permitted first. Then came the indult for Communion in the hand.
 
LilyM said:
As the GIRM states in most all countries, choice of posture is up to the preference of the communicant, unless due to blatant abuse a bishop decides to remove the option offered by the indult in his diocese.
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I’m not sure that’s an abuse. This particular indult is applied to a Conference of Bishops (in this case the USCCB) and I think each Bishop has the right to accept it or refuse it. I don’t think the priest can refuse it if the bishop accepts it.
LilyM said:
And there ain’t a single solitary Bishop anywhere that I’m aware of in the last 40 years who has done so.
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The archbishop of Lima, Peru, has discontinued use of the indult very recently: source, source.
LilyM said:
Not even the last two Popes - who on the contrary have, whatever their personal preference, permitted extension of the indult to places where it hadn’t previously been such as Poland and Rome itself. 🤷
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While Pope Benedict did grant the indult to Poland (in April, 2006)… it should be noted that Pope John Paul II refused to grant it to them!
 
japhy said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by LilyM View Post
As the GIRM states in most all countries, choice of posture is up to the preference of the communicant, unless due to blatant abuse a bishop decides to remove the option offered by the indult in his diocese.

I’m not sure that’s an abuse. This particular indult is applied to a Conference of Bishops (in this case the USCCB) and I think each Bishop has the right to accept it or refuse it. I don’t think the priest can refuse it if the bishop accepts it.

!
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I believe you are right Japhy. A bishop is free to apply or Not apply an indult in his diocese. He is also free to withdraw it from his diocese if it had been applied.
 
LilyM said:
Going further - even if he DOES prefer it it is just that, a preference. As the GIRM states in most all countries, choice of posture is up to the preference of the communicant, unless due to blatant abuse a bishop decides to remove the option offered by the indult in his diocese.
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I don’t think the bold part is true at all, try kneeling at a NOM or standing (unless you have some physical reason why you can’t kneel) at the TLM.

I personally prefer to kneel, however if I tried this at a NOM at least the ones here anyway I’d get flayed.
 
LJN21 said:
I don’t think the bold part is true at all, try kneeling at a NOM or standing (unless you have some physical reason why you can’t kneel) at the TLM.
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You can kneel at the Ordinary Form; you are not to be denied Communion for doing so. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has made this clear.

As for standing at the Extraordinary Form… well… it’s technically permissible, but I doubt many people would do so for reasons other than health.
 
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